克里斯蒂安是个自由职业摄影师，她的女朋友阿里安妮在植物苗圃工作。克里斯蒂安爱上了阿里安妮同父异母的姐姐伊莎贝尔，决定搬去和她一起住。阿里安妮不想失去克里斯蒂安，不停地反对他分居的计划，并找到伊莎贝尔与她对峙。她不能也不愿放手，顽固地纠缠着这对新情人。影片的所有主人公都在彼此询问，对方是否究竟幸福。
德国导演安格拉·夏娜莱克的处女作避开了通常的三角恋叙事。相反的，她聚焦感情上日常的焦虑与不安全感。这部电影还探索了城市环境，大量的对话场景拍摄于充斥着交通和建筑工地嘈杂声的柏林街道上。安格拉·夏娜莱克在谈到这个选择时说：“对我来说，很明显我电影中的语言是不自然的和预先写好的，但另一方面，我不想操纵空间。”

Director Keleman tells the story of a couple that's on the verge of breaking up. A man is unemployed, bored with life, impassive, and doesn't want to admit to his girlfriend he loves her. They separate for one night. The film follows their nocturnal encounters with other people on the fringes of society. Abendland tries to depict a couple that suffers from a fin de siecle crisis in a world that looks even more gruesome than the former Eastern bloc ever did.

Shot in a Andrei Tarkovsky manner, this film is as repellent as their main characters. It bores its audience with hand-held video close-ups and songs from a washed-up female nightclub singer.